1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a floor mat for livestock such as cattle, and more particularly to a floor mat for livestock which has an excellent water permeability, which prevents livestock such as cattle from slipping thereon due to feces and urine of the livestock or due to water for washing away the feces and urine in cleaning, which prevents generation of mildews that are considered to be a cause of mammitis (breast inflammation) of the livestock, and which further has an antibacterial activity.
2. Description of the Related Art
Heretofore, a mat for livestock is used in a cowshed or on a mounting stage of a truck for transporting cattle. This is because, if livestock such as cattle slip, their legs tend to be hurt and a grave condition of the hurt may sometimes lead to death.
Therefore, various shapes such as unevenness are provided to increase the anti-slipping property of conventional floor mats for livestock. However, such floor mats for livestock have a complicated shape, so that feces and urine tend to be caught thereby and water for washing away the feces and urine tends to stay thereon, all the more leading to easy slippage of the livestock.
A floor mat for livestock that solves this problems is disclosed in Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. 7-203792/1995. This floor mat for livestock is characterized in that plural streaks of grooves extending in the same direction are arranged in an upper surface of a flat plate-like mat body in a groove width direction perpendicular to the length direction of the grooves.
However, this floor mat for livestock has a disadvantage of high processing costs because the processing on the mat is complicated, and a disadvantage of large weight because the material used for the mat is a soft rubber or the like.
A floor mat endowed with gas permeability and water permeability is disclosed in Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. 8-149935/1996. This floor mat for livestock is constructed with two (front and rear) layers of knitted textile and linking threads. This construction gives the gas permeability and the water permeability.
However, since this floor mat for livestock is made of a knitted textile, it is not possible to wash away the feces and urine completely from the inside of the fibers, so that it is difficult to prevent generation of mildews.
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a floor mat for livestock which has an excellent water permeability, which prevents livestock such as cattle from slipping thereon due to feces and urine of the livestock or due to water for washing away the feces and urine in cleaning, which prevents generation of mildews that are considered to be a cause of mammitis (breast inflammation) of the livestock, and which further has an antibacterial activity.